Back
SOLAR: Developers hope to finish construction next year on a solar-powered microgrid on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota that aims to reduce energy costs and provide backup power to the small community. (Energy News Network)
ALSO:
PIPELINES: The Iowa Supreme Court affirms a lower court ruling that Summit Carbon Solutions has temporary access to private property owners’ land for surveying despite claims that the practice is “invasive.” (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
COAL:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: President-elect Trump’s potential to withdraw $7,500 federal tax credits on electric vehicles could result in a 27% drop in sales for electric cars and trucks, experts say. (New York Times)
NUCLEAR: Data center developers’ interest in both large and small-scale nuclear reactors to meet their power needs is creating opportunities for contractors with specialized experience in the field. (Construction Dive)
GRID: A clean energy analyst says federal regulators’ decision to give states more of a say in transmission cost planning was a “Kumbaya moment” that will hopefully prevent court challenges to the federal rule. (Utility Dive)
BATTERIES: Federal energy officials finalize a $1.3 billion loan for a company to finance an Indiana plant that will make lithium-ion battery separators used mostly in electric vehicles. (Reuters)
CLEAN ENERGY: A Nebraska village receives $100,000 in federal clean energy funding to install a solar project at a wastewater treatment facility. (High Plains Journal)
A solar-powered microgrid project backed with funding from the Biden administration aims to reduce energy burdens and provide backup power to a tiny northern Minnesota tribal community.
The Pine Point Resilience Hub would serve an elementary school and community center in Pine Point, an Anishinaabe village of about 330 people on the White Earth Reservation.
In June, the project was selected to receive $1.75 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Storage for Social Equity (ES4SE) Program, which helps underserved and frontline communities leverage energy storage to make electricity more affordable and reliable. It’s part of a slew of Biden administration funding related to grid resilience and energy equity that has spurred several tribal microgrid projects across the country.
The developers, locally owned 8th Fire Solar and San Francisco-based 10Power, hope to finish the project next year, and have also secured funding from Minnesota’s Solar for Schools program and foundation grants but said they still need to raise about $1 million. They’re also counting on receiving about $1.5 million in federal tax credits, which face an uncertain future with the incoming Trump administration.
“The idea of the microgrid is to help with infrastructure,” said Gwe Gasco, a member of the White Earth Nation and the program coordinator with 8th Fire Solar, a thermal solar company based on the reservation.
Tribal communities were largely bypassed during the massive, federally funded push under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to bring electricity to remote rural areas of the country. As a result, grid infrastructure on many reservations remains insufficient to this day, with an estimated 1 in 7 Native American households on reservations lacking electricity connections, and many more contending with unreliable service.
On top of higher-than-average electric reliability issues, tribal communities also generally pay higher rates for electricity and face higher energy burdens due to poverty and substandard housing.
On the White Earth Reservation, these challenges are most pronounced in Pine Point, where one-third of residents live in poverty. Gasco said the area is among the first to suffer from outages, with eleven occurring over the last five years, according to the Itasca-Mantrap Electric Cooperative that serves the area.
The Pine Point Resilience Hub project will build on an existing 21-kilowatt solar array, adding another 500 kilowatts of solar capacity along with a 2.76 megawatt-hour battery storage system, enough to provide about 12 hours worth of backup power for residents to be able to charge cell phones, power medical equipment, or stay warm in the event of a power outage.
Gasco said the microgrid could be especially important in the winter, given the area’s “brutally cold” weather and reliance on electric heat. They also hope it will reduce utility costs, though they are still negotiating with the local electric co-op on rates for power the system sends and receives from the utility’s grid. Itasca-Mantrap President and CEO Christine Fox said it doesn’t set net metering rates, which are determined by its electricity supplier.
The project developers hope to qualify for additional federal tax credits by using equipment largely produced in the U.S., including Minnesota-built Heliene solar panels, inverters made in Massachusetts, and Ohio-produced solar racks.
The developers have partnered with the Pine Point School District, which plans to incorporate the microgrid into an Ojibwe-language curriculum on renewable energy. A monitoring interface will allow students to see real-time data in the classroom.
“It’s powerful to me that this (project) is at a school where we’re hoping to inspire the next generation of kids,” said Sandra Kwak, CEO and founder of 10Power, a for-profit company that specializes in developing renewable energy projects in tribal communities.
Corey Orehek, senior business developer for Ziegler Energy Solutions, which has been hired to do the installation, said they plan to work with a local community college to train students for solar jobs.
“One of the things that we want to drive in this is workforce development,” Orehek said. “We want to leave something that’s not only a project that’ll last 30 years but provide the training and experience for community members to either start their own energy companies or become contractors in the clean energy workforce.”
The resilience hub is the second such project announced by a Minnesota tribe in just recent months. The Red Lake Nation received $3.15 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Local Government Energy Program in late September for a behind-the-meter microgrid project at a secondary school.
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is also working with Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative to build a $9 million microgrid with U.S. Department of Energy funding. The electric cooperative will install a 4 megawatt-hour energy storage system and add a 1 megawatt solar system at the reservation in suburban Minneapolis.
It’s unclear whether federal funding for such projects will continue in President-elect Trump’s second term, but for now tribal energy advocates see microgrids as a good solution to both lower energy burdens and improve reliability.
“This is a great opportunity to create a success story in terms of leveraging cutting-edge technology, being able to help frontline communities, and for tribes and co-ops to work together,” Kwak said.
CLIMATE: Oregon regulators vote to reinstate the state’s landmark climate plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions after a court invalidated the 2021 program over a technicality. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
ALSO: A western Colorado city seeks public input on its proposed energy and climate resilience action plan. (Post-Independent)
OIL & GAS: Federal regulators charge Phillips 66 with violating environmental laws for allegedly discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial waste from its Los Angeles-area refinery into county sewer systems. (Mercury News)
UTILITIES:
WIND: U.S. Sen. James Risch, an Idaho Republican, says he will work with the incoming Trump administration to kill the controversial proposed Lava Ridge wind facility on federal land in the southern part of the state. (E&E News, subscription)
SOLAR:
STORAGE:
TRANSITION: Northwestern New Mexico officials advance a proposed freight rail line aimed at spurring industrial development in the wake of a coal plant’s 2022 retirement. (Albuquerque Journal)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Nevada city brings an electric vehicle charging system online to power its police and municipal fleets. (news release)
COMMENTARY: California regulators say their agency’s recent tweaks to the state’s low carbon fuel standards inadvertently incentivize “pollution-heavy practices over sustainable, low-impact solutions.”(Los Angeles Times)
SOLAR: New Hampshire regulators reject a stakeholder agreement to extend net metering to 2044, a decision that will likely slow solar development in the state and be fatal for larger projects now in the planning stages, advocates say. (Concord Monitor)
ALSO:
CLIMATE: The new version of Maine’s climate plan prioritizes renewable energy, energy efficiency measures, climate adaptation, and environmental justice, but scales back previous goals for electric vehicle adoption. (Portland Press Herald, subscription)
OFFSHORE WIND:
TRANSMISSION:
RENEWABLES: Harvard, MIT, and Massachusetts General Brigham hospital partner to buy up to 1.3 million megawatt-hours of power annually from a Texas solar installation and North Dakota wind facility. (Harvard Magazine)
GEOTHERMAL: A networked geothermal system in Massachusetts is one of a handful of projects nationwide demonstrating the potential of thermal systems to replace traditional gas utility service. (Utility Dive)
FOSSIL FUELS: A former coal plant in Connecticut will soon be demolished as the state moves away from fossil fuel power generation. (Connecticut Public Radio)
COMMENTARY: Energy storage is the “cornerstone of a clean energy grid” and offers important environmental and economic benefits, despite critics’ inflated concerns about upfront costs, say two Northeast clean energy advocates. (CommonWealth Beacon)
STORAGE: The United Auto Workers announces a campaign to unionize Ford Motor Co. and SK On’s joint battery project in Kentucky after a supermajority of workers sign union authorization cards. (Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky Lantern)
ALSO: A Texas startup is operating a 53 MW storage project made up of used electric vehicle batteries, and appears to be the largest grid storage plant in the world. (Canary Media)
POLITICS:
HYDROGEN: The Biden administration signs an agreement with developers to build a $1.2 billion hydrogen hub in Texas. (Houston Chronicle)
NUCLEAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR: A Virginia county board discusses changing its solar ordinance to tighten restrictions on projects larger than five acres. (Bristol Herald-Courier)
CARBON CAPTURE: Exxon Mobil and other Gulf Coast oil and gas companies lobby the incoming Trump administration to preserve an $85 per ton tax credit for carbon storage since they’ve already invested in development of the technology. (Houston Chronicle)
OIL & GAS: The Biden administration still aims to release a new rule to require oil and gas companies to cover cleanup costs from offshore drilling rigs, but time is running out and the incoming Trump administration could rewrite or delay it. (E&E News)
BIOFUELS: The Tennessee Valley Authority and an energy nonprofit announce the successful demonstration of renewable diesel for power generation at a 76 MW gas and diesel-fired power plant in Tennessee. (news release)
UTILITIES: Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators for approval to charge customers for costs associated with its offshore wind farm and moves to develop small modular nuclear reactors. (VPM)
COMMENTARY: The incoming Trump administration’s promises to roll back electric vehicle tax credits could rattle Georgia’s industry, writes a columnist. (Georgia Recorder)
HYDROGEN: Federal officials announce the first $22 million for a Midwest hydrogen production hub that could receive up to $1 billion, though it’s unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will support the technology. (E&E News)
NUCLEAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
DISTRICT ENERGY: Duluth, Minnesota, is studying the potential for a wastewater effluent-powered district energy system to heat downtown buildings. (Smart Cities Dive)
PIPELINES: Federal appeals court judges hear oral arguments in a case brought by a carbon pipeline developer over whether two Iowa counties could set restrictions on the company’s project. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
CLIMATE: Data centers and AI are threatening U.S. climate goals as more than 200 gas plants are in various stages of development across the country to serve the industry. (Washington Post)
GRID:
SOLAR: Progress continues on a $2.3 million solar installation on the administration building in Iowa’s most populous county. (KCCI)
CLEAN ENERGY: A Michigan Congress member, whose district is the site of a Chinese company’s proposed battery manufacturing plant, cosponsors legislation to prevent Chinese companies from accessing Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. (Solar Power World)
BIOFUELS: A South Dakota board approves $12.6 million in funding support for a $500 million processing plant that’s expected to help meet demand for soy-based biofuels. (South Dakota Searchlight)
WORKFORCE: Kentucky communities where developers are building large battery factories that are expected to create thousands of jobs are experiencing housing shortages, with a legislative study finding the state is 206,207 housing units short of what it needs. (Lexington Herald-Leader)
OIL & GAS:
SOLAR:
WIND:
CLIMATE: New research finds soaring insurance premiums fueled by climate change increase the probability of homeowners falling behind on their mortgages. (Floodlight)
GRID:
POLITICS:
NUCLEAR: A new report suggests Texas lawmakers rework the nuclear permitting process and establish a state fund to incentivize construction of new plants, similar to what the state established recently for gas-fired power plants. (Utility Dive)
HYDROELECTRIC: The Tennessee Valley Authority signs a deal with two companies to receive power from a 377 MW portfolio of four hydroelectric dams in Tennessee and North Carolina. (news release)
COMMENTARY: With the incoming Trump administration unlikely to address climate change, it’s up to the private sector to handle the job instead, writes the head of a conservative climate group. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
SOLAR: Minnesota officials announce the completion of the first phase of a massive solar project that’s set to replace the retiring Sherco coal plant. (WCCO)
ALSO:
RENEWABLES: Ann Arbor, Michigan, will launch its voter-approved “sustainable energy utility” by assembling an initial 20 MW of demand and financing various renewable energy, storage and efficiency projects. (Canary Media)
PIPELINES: Summit Carbon Solutions reapplies for a carbon pipeline permit in South Dakota with significant reroutes after its initial application was rejected last year. (South Dakota Searchlight)
BATTERIES: A company announces plans for a $547 million battery components plant near St. Louis that would serve energy storage and electric vehicle markets. (FOX 2)
GRID: Ratepayer advocates file a complaint with federal regulators seeking changes to PJM’s capacity market design that they say is causing spiking capacity prices. (Utility Dive)
UTILITIES:
CLIMATE: A firm that helps real estate, insurance and financial companies predict how climate models could result in local impacts develops a tool to measure how resilient and at-risk U.S. cities are to climate change. (Washington Post)
EFFICIENCY: Wisconsin energy efficiency contractors have been promoting an Inflation Reduction Act-funded program that has deployed nearly $75 million to serve the state’s residents. (WUWM)
WIND: With three coal-fired power plants in Arkansas expected to close by 2030, renewable energy advocates tout the state’s emerging wind industry as a potential replacement. (Arkansas Advocate)
ALSO: Dominion Energy crews begin installing ductwork along Virginia roadways for power lines to the utility’s offshore wind farm. (WVEC)
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
STORAGE: Two companies move to assemble a 1 GW virtual power plant in Texas by linking hundreds of thousands of smart thermostats, with plans to eventually add in other customer-owned assets like solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Austin, Texas’ transit agency shelves 46 electric buses for at least a year because the company that makes them went bankrupt and there aren’t yet enough chargers to keep them running all day. (Austin Monitor)
NUCLEAR:
COAL ASH: U.S. EPA officials say they’re working to address the discovery of nearly 300 tons of coal ash near a North Carolina elementary school. (WCNC)
CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. Energy Department awards $26 million to a proposed offshore carbon capture and storage facility near Louisiana that’s expected to take emissions from a liquified natural gas export terminal. (The Advocate)
GRID:
POLITICS:
COMMENTARY:
WIND: President-elect Trump’s ambitions to shut down the offshore wind industry would push New York’s climate goals further out of reach, but it remains unclear whether his administration will be able to pull it off. (New York Focus)
ALSO:
CLEAN ENERGY: A Cornell University researcher says New York will need 40 GW of dispatchable power to meet its climate goals, exceeding a NYISO forecast that some groups dismissed as “alarmist.” (Syracuse.com, subscription)
UTILITIES: Facing conditions more familiar to the West Coast, utilities in New Jersey are taking precautions to avoid sparking wildfires amid a persistent drought. (WPVI)
TRANSPORTATION: New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approves a revamped congestion pricing plan, which still needs federal approval and faces challenges from New Jersey officials. (Bloomberg)
GRID:
TRANSMISSION: A study from Cornell University researchers says making beneficiaries pay for new power lines is consistent with decades of legal precedent. (news release)
HYDROPOWER:
CLIMATE: Portland, Maine’s city council votes to establish a dedicated climate fund for projects to reduce the city’s emissions. (Portland Press Herald)
COMMENTARY: Two scientists say Maryland has an opportunity to become a national leader on reducing emissions during the Trump administration. (Baltimore Sun)
.svg)
